The Bang Bang Club
Tribeca Film | Release Date: April 22, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinApr 21, 2011
Writer-director Steven Silver (with an able assist from cinematographer Miroslaw Baszak) captures this brutal time - which led to the country's first free, multiracial elections in 1994 and the end of apartheid - in vivid, often bold, but never overpowering strokes. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderAlbert WilliamsApr 21, 2011
Director-writer Steven Silver deftly juxtaposes exciting (and sometimes horrific) battle re-creations with scenes of the photographers' personal lives. Read full review
60
MovielineStephanie ZacharekApr 22, 2011
Unfortunately, Silver's movie doesn't cut deep enough: It glosses over some thorny questions and hammers too fixedly on others. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanApr 22, 2011
The story has heat, even if the movie is more entranced with its subjects than in what they're trying to achieve. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMay 6, 2011
Ultimately, his (Silver) film settles for a queasy mix of high-toned intentions and commercial compromises. Read full review
50
NPRIan BuckwalterApr 25, 2011
A slideshow of actual photographs by the Bang Bang Club during the end credits packs more emotional punch than anything that precedes them, displaying in their still frames the singular focus that the movie lacks. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 21, 2011
Why, then, do we care not one bit when Pulitzers are won and bullets unsuccessfully dodged? The answer lies partly in Mr. Silver's refusal to elucidate the racial politics or engage with the world outside the film's incoherently chaotic bubble. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 21, 2011
This question, which will instinctively occur to many viewers, is never quite dealt with in the film. The photographers sometimes drive into the middle of violent situations, hold up a camera, and say "press!" - as if that will solve everything. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasApr 21, 2011
Silver means to get across the adrenaline rush of lives lived in dangerous extremes, but winds up trivializing their accomplishments and making them seem like men of hearty appetites, but little intellectual depth. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 21, 2011
Writer-director Silver, who trained in documentaries, appears flummoxed by the challenges of getting the audience inside the heads of these young men. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenApr 19, 2011
When all is said and done, their Pulitzer-winning photographs prove more potent than this well-intended but frustratingly generic picture. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeApr 19, 2011
Club's entertainment value suffers at the expense of trying to capture the events as they happened -- an ill-advised endeavor, considering everything. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearApr 19, 2011
A single arresting shot of a photographer chasing a man on fire says more about journalistic ethics and the queasy power of the image than all of the speechifying and star-posing combined; if only the rest of this muddled movie had as much insightful Sontagian bang. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichelle OrangeApr 19, 2011
Silver treads around and too heavily on the moral ambiguities involved in documenting atrocities, moving between frantic, poorly explained scenes of African conflict and the equally familiar, benumbing aesthetic of boys making a macho game of war. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithApr 22, 2011
Seldom does The Bang Bang Club show much interest in the big picture of South Africa. When moral issues do come to the forefront, the big worry seems to be not questionable behavior but bad publicity. Read full review
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